Anti-Empire

Here is an interesting photo essay from Mother Jones on phone sex operators.

This woman reveals:

I'm 60 years old, I have a BA in cultural anthropology from Columbia
University, and I've been married for 25 years. I make twice the money I
made in the corporate world. I work from home; the money transfers
into my bank account daily. I'm Scheherazade: If I don't tell stories
that fascinate the pasha, he will kill me in the morning.

Another woman describes her worst experiences as a phone sex operator:

Just last night I received possibly the most disturbing phone sex call
I’d had in a long time. A caller shot himself with me on the phone.
Things like this always scare me. My current track record stands at one
confession of incestuous sexual abuse, and two other suicides.

This woman claims that "if all women did phone sex before they lost their virginity, they would
make much better choices." Huh? I don't think I had even heard of phone sex by the time I lost my virginity!

She argues, "I learned to listen to men in a deeper way. Tuning into men's voices,
instead of getting caught up on their looks, was the same as a person
suddenly going blind, only to find their other senses enhanced."

Miraculously, I've managed to find a way to not judge men solely on their appearance in spite of my lack of phone sex education.

This woman tells of a call - fortunately - gone wrong:

One of my most memorable calls was also one of the grossest. It was a
fetish call. A scat fetish. I started out by telling him I was a vegan.
I cracked him up. He was laughing so hard, he had to hang up because
he couldn't get back into our fantasy.

After coping with serious illness over the past year, I have accepted the frustration and pain of having to put parts of my life on hold. I have gotten significantly better in the last couple of months and particularly the last few weeks. I will soon return to my thesis. I am well enough now to visit my sister who is town from Boston this week - something that I could not do in a real way a few months ago. I am well enough to read and write again. I have recovered the core of my existence.

Everything has looked brighter recently and I have been filled with hope. My frustrations surrounding my limited ability to participate in life as fully as I would like have been tempered with the knowledge that, in time, I will be able to more fully re-engage with living.

Organizing an emergency protest in solidarity with the people who have been illegally treated and detained by the police at the G20 summit is not something that can wait. And, I simply do not have the physical capacity to do this. I can tell you that of all the things I have endured in the past year, incapacity at this time is one of the most heartbreaking and angering of the experiences. Moving along through a paced recovery, I occupy myself with many mindless diversions. Yesterday and today, I feel I am failing as an activist, a comrade and a human being.

All I can do is attempt to assist in disseminating some of the reports from people on the ground. All I can do is thank my comrades and tell you that I am reduced to sobbing as it eats at my soul to not be able to physically stand in solidarity with you.

I will continue to distribute information on this blog, on my Tumblr account and on Twitter - @joannecostello. If I can help anyone in any socially mediated way, please contact me.

I am using this space to post a report that I found at The DominionMedia Co-op -- and excellent source for grassroots coverage of the events.

WE ARE CALLING AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IN THE
MEANTIME, DISTRIBUTE THIS LINK AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

We (i.e., Justin Giovannetti and Lex Gill) are both able and
willing to testify in front of a court of law, tribunal or hearing to
attest to the validity of these statements. Much of this is now recorded
on video and we have some contact information for the victims. We will
NOT consent to contact with any police representatives (municipal,
provincial, or federal) nor will we consent to speaking to other
security agencies (CSIS, Canadian Forces, etc.). We can be contacted at
lex.gill [at] gmail [dot] com, or jackgiovannetti [at] gmail [dot] com.

We just got back to our computers and are frantically writing this
message. It is 4:45 a.m. on Monday morning. We are the only people who
seem to know the extent of this story. Coffee and adrenaline keeping us
going. When we got to Queen and Spadina after leaving the Convergence
Centre raid today, we had already been blocked off by police lines. It
was pouring rain, and we could hear a confrontation taking place further
down the street. The cops didn't care whether or not we were media --
in fact, we heard that media was forced to leave before we arrived.
Police acted violently and with sheer disregard for the law, attacking
peaceful protesters and civilians unrelated to the protest. Tired,
frantic, and feeling defeated, we came home and posted the message
before this one.

We then did the only thing left to do, and headed to 629 Eastern
Avenue (the G20 Detention Centre, a converted film studio), where
detainees from the demonstrations were being taken. We knew people were
being released sporadically so we grabbed as many juice boxes and
granola bars as we could afford and set off with medical supplies.
Journalists were basically absent, showed up only to take a few seconds
of video, or simply arrived far too late to be effective.

It is next to impossible to set the scene of what happened at the
Detention Centre. Between the two of us we estimate that we spoke to
over 120 people, most of whom were released between 9:30 p.m. and 4:30
a.m. Despite not knowing each other, the story they tell is the same. It
goes like this. Most were arrested at three locations: the Novotel on
Saturday evening where the police arrested hundreds of peaceful
protesters (look @spaikan on Twitter); Spadina/Queen's Park all day
Saturday and early Sunday, as people were arrested all over the downtown
for many different (and often bogus) reasons; and the University of
Toronto, where hundreds of Quebecers and others were woken up and
arrested at gun point early Saturday morning.

What follows is a list, as detailed as we can make it in a blog post,
of what we saw and heard.

People were held for up to 35 hours with a single meal. None
seemed to have received food more than twice daily, the meal they did
receive was a hamburger bun with processed cheese and margarine
described as a centimeter thick. Detainees had to create loud noises for
hours to receive any food at all. All reported feeling more ill and
dehydrated after eating than before. Some vomited and received no
medical attention when they did. Water was not provided with the meal.

Inadequate water, as little as an ounce every 12 hours.
Although some people reported receiving approximately an ounce (a small
Dixie cup) of water every three hours, most seemed to have received
far less than that. They had to create loud noises and continuously
demand water, only to receive it up to an hour and a half later.
Sometimes rooms with over a dozen people were only given a handful
(four or five) cups of water and forced to share. Some reported the
water as yellow-coloured and smelling of urine, which they didn't
drink.

Facilities over-capacity.There were many reports of "cages"
filled with 40 people, though a police officer told one detainee that
they were intended for groups of no more than 15 to 20. Each cage had a
single bench, with only enough seating for five people. There was only
one toilet in each cage and it was without a door. Women were creating
barriers with their bodies for others to create some semblance of
privacy.

Major delays in processing.Many detainees were told that the
only reason they remained at the Centre was due to unexplained delays
in processing. Most detainees seemed to go through a three step system
whereby they were put in an initial holding cell, only to be moved to a
second cell after meeting a Staff Sergeant in a board room. This is
where they were told what they were arrested for. Eventually they were
moved to a third cell before release. This process seemed to take no
less than 10 hours. Others were never told why they were arrested and
never signed any documents. A few were released immediately upon
arriving at the Centre and were never processed. Some were never brought
to a cell, only made to wait in a line to be let out.

Inconsistent charges. Groups arrested at the same time and
for the same behaviour were given different charges, with some let out
and others given court dates. Many felt the police simply assigned a
charge or did not know why they were being arrested. Some charges were
changed or dropped before the detainees were released.

People put in solitary confinement. Most of the openly queer
detainees reported to have been transferred to a "Segregated Zone." In
cages built for one, couples of men and women were held. A lesbian is
reported to have spent nearly 10 hours alone. Another woman said she was
kept alone in a large cell for hours, asking to be moved the whole
time.

No pillows or mattresses to sleep. No bedding was ever
provided for detainees, who were told to sleep on bare concrete floors.
Detainees were stripped of all but a single shirt and legwear. Many
said they could not sleep during their day long detentions.

Unsanitary and unsafe living conditions. Many of the floors
of the cages were covered with dirt and the residue from green
paintballs used to identify suspects in crowds. Vomit was also on the
floor and no cleaning of the cages took place.

Police intimidation of released detainees. With many of the
detainees released and standing across the street from the detention
centre, getting food and water from community volunteers while waiting
for friends, police stood menacingly across the road. Almost all the
detainees were frightened by the police presence and feared an attack.
The police used the headlights of rental Dodge Caravans to light up the
crowd, citing a need to "keep them visible."

Non-stop light exposure/loss of natural light rhythm/sensory
deprivation. Detainees emerged with a broken day/night cycle, being
deprived of all connection to the outside world or any other time-based
events (ie. set eating times). While in their cages, detainees were
subject to constant light.Exposure to extreme cold.Detainees
complained of the air conditioning in the building being very high.
Many of them said that they were frozen and asked for blankets, a
request which was always refused. Due to having only a single layer of
shirt and sleeping on concrete floors, the cages were extremely cold.

Sexual harassment of women and Queer people. We heard many
first-hand accounts of cat-calls and crude sexual comments directed at
women from police officers at the Centre. Some women faced inappropriate
sexual contact (including one girl who was forced to endure a police
officer covering her body with detainee number stickers in order to
touch her), and rough handling from police officers. Openly Queer boys
were told to "straighten up," and there was at least one completely nude
strip search preformed on a young woman with no reasonable
explanation. It is unclear whether the strip searches that took place
were consistently conducted by members of the same gender. It is also
unclear as to whether any Transpeople, if detained, were put in cells
of a gender of their own determination or in cells of a police gender
assignment.

Youth as young as 15 in adult cells. Youth (under 18)
detainees were held in the same cells as adults, some of whom had not
been charged at all (and thus it could not be justified that they were
being held on adult charges). A 16-year-old was held in an adult cell
for at least 12 hours, the police were fully aware of his age, and his
parents were at no point contacted.

Denial of legal counsel. When detainees asked to see lawyers
they were told that they would receive legal counsel at a later time or
at the time of processing. Often, these times went by and no legal
counsel was provided. Those released without charge were told to avoid
contacting lawyers. Most detainees said they were never informed of
their rights.

No phone call. About only one in ten of the detainees we
spoke to had been given access to a phone. Others were promised access
at a later time and never received it. There was a father waiting
outside for his 20-year old son who had been arrested Saturday
afternoon or evening, and had yet to receive a call. Many of the
detainees were told that only 20 phones were available in the building,
holding over 500 detainees at the time. The offices of legal counsel
also had no landlines.

Belonging stolen/damaged.Most detainees reported that at
least some of their confiscated belongings were not returned to them,
including passports, wallets, credit and debit cards, money, cellphones
and clothing. When detainees were escorted outside the Centre, many
were made to walk on the street without access to their shoes (sealed
in thick plastic bags only returned at the limit of the Centre's
property). Some shoes were missing entirely. At least one extremely
visually impaired detainee's glasses were put with his belongings and
were severely damaged when he recovered them (ie. broken in half).

Threats of assault/harassment.Many detainees, but especially
French Canadian detainees (who were not served in French), were taunted
and threatened with assault. Homophobic slurs were used by guards and
one was told that if he was ever seen again in Toronto the cop would
attack him. Other degrading comments were made, including telling
detainees that they "looked like dogs."

Obviously illegal civilian arrests. Some civilians who were
completely uninvolved in the demonstrations were arrested while exiting
subway stations in the downtown core. Some were arrested after illegal
searches of cars turned up "dangerous goods" (like books about activism
and lemon juice). One fully-uniformed TTC streetcar driver was
arrested for hours. He had been ordered out of his streetcar by riot
police and was immediately arrested. We wish we were kidding.

No access to medication or medical treatment. While doing
medical support, Lex met at least two people who had been denied
medication. The first was a woman who said that she was pre-diabetic
and needed medication for nausea and dizziness. She was denied access
to medical treatment, despite the fact that by the time Lex found her
she was extremely faint, barely conscious, and had difficulty sitting
up. The second was a young man who was prescribed anti-psychotics and
had missed several doses (he did not, however, have an episode at the
time Lex met him). We heard stories of at least one person with Type 2
diabetes inside the Centre who had been deprived of insulin and fell
unconscious. Many stories of a man handcuffed to a wheelchair, missing a
leg (and his prosthetic) came from the released detainees. One
recently-released detainee had four extremely poorly done stitches on
his chin and was uncertain as to what shots (whether tetanus or
anesthetic, or both) he was given. He was given the stitches at the
time of his arrest and the wound was still bleeding badly (we had to
sterilize it and applied gauze).

AbandonmentDespite all of the above mentioned crimes against
detainees, most notably including medical issues, the Toronto Police
had no plan for the detainees after they were released. They were
simply escorted off the property and told to leave. Many had no idea
where they were, had no access to a phone, had not eaten in a day, had
no identification or money on their person, and were nowhere near mass
transit. Had community volunteers and fellow released detainees not
been present to assist them, we fear that some could have faced
life-threatening medical emergencies or death.

We will be continually updating this blog over the next few weeks.
Please share this with everyone you possibly can. People must know what
has happened in Toronto. For those of you attending the Jail Solidarity
rally tomorrow, please distribute this link widely.

Watching the news coverage of the current situation in Haiti is overwhelming. I feel very helpless, as I'm sure many do, and yet I take the seemingly insufficient step of donating online. When I consider the historical and current oppression of this region, I shut off emotionally because I know I am implicated in the tragedy...The only place to begin is with the seemingly insufficient steps of further educating myself and speaking out in the spirit of solidarity. So, I begin...

In his article Haiti, "Classquakes," and American Empire, Paul Stree writes that geographer Kenneth Hewitt coined the phrase "classquake" to describe 20th century earthquakes' differentiated pattern of destruction which fell mainly on slums and poor rural villages.

I have selected some excerpts on the article, but encourage you to read it in its entirety.

The earthquake catastrophe in Haiti is being portrayed on the national and local evening news as a natural disaster that has elicited a virtuous humanitarian response from the inherently noble and benevolent United States.

It’s about bad geologic (and cosmic, as in “acts of God”) forces versus good Uncle Sam, that fine democratic friend of the poor and downtrodden around the world.

“This is an opportunity,” the editors of The New York Times arrogantly proclaim today, “for President Obama to demonstrate how the United States shoulders its responsibilities and mobilizes other countries to do their part” (NYT, January 14, 2010, A28).

But Haiti’s agony and the role of the U.S. is much more complicated than the childish morality play being broadcast on the Telescreens.Earthquakes are natural developments, but vulnerability to them is richly anthropogenic (“man made”) and is not spread evenly across the fractured and intersecting global landscapes of race, class, and empire. As Mike Davis pointed out in his 2006 book Planet of Slums, a chilling expose of the atrocious living (and dying) conditions that US.-led neoliberal capitalism has imposed on the ever more mega-urbanized poor of the global South: ”Even more than landslides and floods, earthquakes make precise audits of the urban housing crisis…seismic destruction usually maps with uncanny accuracy to poor-quality brick, mud, or concrete residential housing...Seismic hazard is the fine print in the devil’s bargain of informal housing…”

The “relaxation” of regulations on housing planning and construction combines with the concentration of much of the South’s urban population “on or near active tectonic plate margins” to put millions in peril.

“Seismic risk is so unevenly distributed in most cities,” Davis learned, that one leading “hazard geographer” (Kenneth Hewitt) coined the phrase “classquake” to describe 20th century earthquakes’ “biased pattern of destruction,” which fell mainly on “slums, tenement districts, [and] poor rural villages.”

Davis’ (and Hewitt’s) analysis clearly applies to the current Haitian tragedy, vastly magnified by the desperately impoverished and informal, unregulated housing conditions of masses of marginalized people in and around the sprawling slums of Port au Prince. In that city’s most notorious slum, Cite-Soliel, David noted, population densities are “comparable to cattle feedlots” crowding more residents per acre into low-rise housing than there were in famous congested tenement districts such as the Lower East Side in the 1900s or in contemporary highrise cores such as central Tokyo and Manhattan.” [1]

...

The hyper-concentration of poor Haitians in seismically hyper-vulnerable subs-standard housing in and around Port au-Prince, it is worth noting, is a direct outcome of U.S. trade policies that undermined Haitian small farmers, sending rural residents into and around the capital city.

A reformist priest named Jan Baptiste Aristide threatened Washington’s vicious neoliberal regime when he won Haiti’s first free election in 1990. Aristide came to office with strong support from the poor majority. His hostility to U.S.-imposed misery led Washington to move to undermine his regime from the outset. Aristide was removed in a U.S.-supported coup in 1991 but returned amidst popular upheaval in 1994. The Clinton White House initially backed the coup regime even more strongly than did George Bush I. Thanks to its rhetoric about “democracy” at home and abroad, the militantly corporate-neoliberal NAFTA-promoting Clinton administration felt compelled to pretend that they backed Aristide’s return to power in 1994. The Clinton Pentagon and State Department delayed that return for two years and made it clear that Aristide’s restoration to nominal power depended upon him promising not to help the poor by offering any further challenges to Washington’s “free market” economics. “By 1994,” Chomsky explained last year, “Clinton decided that the population was sufficiently intimidated, and he sent US forces to restore the elected president – that’s now called a humanitarian intervention – but on very strict conditions, namely that the president had to accept a very harsh neoliberal regime, in particular, no protection for the economy.” [4]

In February 2004, the U.S. and France – Haiti’s traditional sadistic masters – joined hands (along with Canada) across their supposed great cultural divide to support another military coup. This U.S.-directed putsch exported Aristide to Central Africa.

...

Under the Woodrow Wilson-fan Barack Obama, as under George Bush II, Washington has banned Aristide from revisiting region. Obama sided with the corrupt Haitian elite by refusing to act against the shutting out of Aristide’s popular party (Family Lavalas) from Haitian elections in the spring of 2009. [6]

Washington has responded to the heavily racial-ized imperial “classquake” with Pentagon military “assessments” while China, Venezuela, and Cuba have acted promptly with direct humanitarian assistance and human solidarity. Look for the imperial masters to seek “disaster capitalist” (Naomi Klein) opportunities in the terrible tragedy in Haiti, which has been suffering the shocks and aftershocks of world capitalist empire since the end of the 15th century.

In an article written in 1969, Willis argues, "For women, buying and wearing clothes and beauty aids is not so much
consumption as work. One of a woman’s jobs in this society is to be an
attractive sexual object, and clothes and make up are tools of the trade.
Similarly, buying food and household furnishings is a domestic task; it is the
wife’s chore to pick out the commodities that will be consumed by the
whole family."

In the past 40 years, women have become even more of a coveted market. We ourselves have become commodified; it is through these products that we supposedly make
ourselves marketable.

Being self-consciously occupied is an effective means of social control; our world is kept so narrow that we are marginalized from important political discussions.

This point is touched on in Sarah Haskins hilarious and tragic review of advertisements marketing to women in 2009.

When will the party leadership consider that the best defense may be a good offense?

I fear that Laxer's prophecy for the federal NDP will manifest in next election:

The move this week to vote confidence in the government was wrong-headed.The
NDP has abandoned the high ground to the Liberals on the central
question of who is leading the fight against the Harper government.From
now on, the Liberals will vote against the government at every turn in
parliament, and the NDP will have to prop up the Conservatives until
the changes to EI it favours are passed into law.(Gilles Duceppe has announced that the Conservatives won’t be able to count on him for future votes.)

By
the time the next opportunity to defeat the government comes along in
the winter or spring, the Ignatieff Liberals will be rhetorically
entrenched on the high ground----substantively they offer
nothing----while the NDP is reduced to a minor player whose job is to
sustain the Harperites who loath social democrats.

The
coming months are going to be difficult ones for Canadian families and
communities as the rate of unemployment rises and the bite of the
economic crisis is more deeply felt.

The Harper government is set to lose the next election.Had the NDP stuck to its role as the unwavering opponent of the Conservatives, the party could have gained enormously.More important, the party could have offered the country the prospect of real change.

Meanwhile, in Alberta, we are constantly in a state of reaction...discussions of coalitions continue...

Our own health care discussions are framed by the hegemonic rhetoric of scarcity and efficiency. Likewise, environmental discussions are divorced from economic policy.

The global recession siren calls; economics should be at the heart of discussions relating to all policy spheres.

In Alberta, it is time to seek citizen control of our coveted natural resources. Fund health care and, once we resuscitate the system, we can move on to rehabilitation and efficiency. My guess is that many of the problems of efficiency would be resolved simply by adequate funding...Imaging having MRI machines, and the like, for quick diagnosing - swift treatment means less sick people returning over and over again to their doctors' offices and emergency rooms!

The federal NDP might also speak with increased confidence regarding its position on Afghanistan when Alberta's not fueling the U.S. department of defense.

In mid-May, I intended to blog about the Friends of Medicare rally at the Alberta Legislature that took place on May, 2009 and drew the support of thousands of protesters but apparently not that of the mainstream media.

Today, I write about this important citizen's movement in the wake of information that the government intends to downgrade rural hospitals and after yet another painful experience at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on my journey with chronic illness.

My condition is called CVID - it essentially makes it difficult for me to fight bacterial and viral infections. On May 29th, I went with dread to the Foothills Hospital on the sixth day of struggling with a stomach flu that literally left me unable to keep even liquids in my system. I can tell you that by the fifth day of the episode, I knew that I was in a serious state and needed hospital care but I am actually scared to go to a hospital in Alberta after all of the terrible experiences that I've had with the health care system. Fortunately, I have an incredible family that urged me to go to the emergency room and bore the painful wait in the E.R. waiting room with me.

Before I continue, let me note that anyone who knows me well knows that I am incredibly tough and can handle a great deal of physical pain and discomfort...

I lay in the E.R. waiting room for 8 hours (which is standard in my experience) writhing in pain, having to haul my body to the washroom with diarrhea, shivering with cold and breaking down sobbing in front of dozens of people. Adding to the nightmare, was the guilt of exposing my parents who are in their 70s to this mayhem. (I recently broke up with my partner who is truly the most supportive man that I have ever encountered, so believe me that I was missing him terribly too.) Also adding insult to injury was the business channel being broadcasted loudly throughout the 8 hours, including disgusting attack ads from the Harper camp against Ignatieff. (Do I really need to see the propaganda of the ideologues who crawled out of Alberta to try to destroy the rest of Canada while I lie in the third-world-like conditions that their provincial counterparts have created?!)

And, then there was just the terrible anger and sadness and desperation as I lay there so ill and glanced around the room and saw so may others struggling...And, don't think that I am the only one who is angry. The conversations that I could overhear in my dazed state were punctuated by remarks that the Conservative government of Alberta has destroyed our health care system and demonstrates an offensive disregard for its citizens. How, people asked, could the richest province in Canada fail to provide basic medical care for its residents?!

At about hour 7, a nurse at the triage desk put an IV in me with saline and gravol. I was then sent back out into the waiting room. As someone who regularly receives infusions, I was not made less uncomfortable by the IV but I am not sure the other patients and relatives waiting felt very reassured. When the saline solution finished draining in roughly an hour and my blood began backing up through all of the IV tubing, I would say that all the bystanders were pretty freaked out.

Fortunately, my bloodiness got me a ticket into the E.R. beds...And, trust me, the poor conditions and the malcontent does not end there. I believe the Foothills Hospital has signs that say something along the lines of "just because we don't have a room for you, doesn't mean you're not being treated as a regular patient." The nurses and doctors are clearly over-worked and struggling to do their very best in spite of the conditions that make it so much more difficult to do their jobs. In my journey with illness, I have encountered the occasional nasty medical practitioner who you can quite obviously see is overwhelmed by his or her work conditions. But, for the most part, I am absolutely amazed by the emotional and physical stamina that these people exhibit to care for people in such substandard conditions.

I was fortunate to receive exceptional treatment by both my nurse and doctor. In less than 12 hours, they were able to stabilize me with medications and a few more bags of saline solution to hydrate me. Both were caring and kind...just like the people in the waiting room who seemed so dismayed to see me left out there is such a disastrous state.

There is a myth among the Left in Canada that Albertans are a bunch of spoiled, Conservatives. As a native Albertan, I would argue that we are a collective of people who care deeply for each other; who want the Conservative government out, but who do face obstacles of democracy that have been brought about by a powerful oil corporation lobby among other factors. I would also suggest that people have become somewhat hopeless over the years and certainly living in a place where you can't even get proper medical treatment leaves people in a mode of survival that is not conducive to participation and democracy.

Still, people continue to resist and come together as a community...

As someone who is often in the advocate role, I want to thank Friends of Medicare and all my fellow Albertans who rallied at the Alberta Legislature when I was too ill to attend in early May. I cannot fully convey how much your advocacy lends a sense of support, community and hope as I struggle in this health care system. I offer you my deepest gratitude.

I offer my readers a good video clip of Brian Mason speaking at the rally and photos for people to enjoy. This display of democracy in action must be celebrated. Alberta will take its health care system and its government back!

The New Year seemed to stumble in through crises...from the attacks in Mumbai, to the uprising in Greece, and most recently Israel's brutal disciplining of Gaza...it is as though the world is writhing in pain and desperation to escape its suffocating rule.

The local news in Calgary reported four murders at the start of the year...and it seemed like various tragedies swept Canada...and the weather has remained bitterly cold as though nature condemns us.

I have been turning away from the news and finding comfort in my personal life and in various distractions...

We watched Ghost Town the other evening. It is a charming film and Ricky Gervais gives a hilarious performance.

Finally, here is some interesting work by an artist named Andrea Dezso. Her collection "Lessons From My Mother" consists of 48 individually framed cotton squares embroidered with "advice" passed on from her mother such as: My mother claimed that men will like me more if I pretend to be less smart."

Well, it is time for a cup of tea...I wish all my readers a bearable if not bright New Year.

Bono is making poverty history. Iraq is being liberated. Someone is saving the whales. China is a human rights violator. Oprah is saving an entire continent. Hugo Chavez is a terrorist. All the people on Entertainment Tonight are giving back...

...except for Sean Penn. Writing about his recent trip to Cuba and Venezuela, Penn lists among his motivations: "to deepen my understanding of Chávez and
Venezuela and excite my writing hand."

Huh?

In his recent article for The Nation, Penn opens by saying:

Soon to be Vice President-elect Joe Biden was rallying the troops: "We
can no longer be energy dependent on Saudi Arabia or a Venezuelan
dictator." Well, I know what Saudi Arabia is. But having been to
Venezuela in 2006, touring slums, mixing with the wealthy opposition and
spending days and hours at its president's side, I wondered, without
wondering, to whom Senator Biden was referring. Hugo Chávez
Frías is the democratically elected president of Venezuela (and
by democratically elected I mean that he has repeatedly stood before the
voters in internationally sanctioned elections and won large majorities,
in a system that, despite flaws and irregularities, has allowed his
opponents to defeat him and win office, both in a countrywide referendum
last year and in regional elections in November). And Biden's words were
the kind of rhetoric that had recently led us into a life-losing and
monetarily costly war, which, while toppling a shmuck in Iraq, had also
toppled the most dynamic principles upon which the United States was
founded, enhanced recruitment for Al Qaeda and deconstructed the US
military.

By now, October 2008, I had digested my earlier visits to Venezuela and
Cuba and time spent with Chávez and Fidel Castro. I had grown
increasingly intolerant of the propaganda. Though Chávez himself
has a penchant for rhetoric, never has it been a cause for war. In hopes
of demythologizing this "dictator," I decided to pay him another visit.
By this time I had come to say to friends in private, "It's true,
Chávez may not be a good man. But he may well be a great one."